TV Review: The Walking Dead, S6 Ep14 ‘Twice As Far’

There’s something surprisingly creepy about an episode of TWD opening with no words spoken. You know that this can’t last, and yet when nobody speaks more than a couple sentences in what feels like forever (but is in fact only 5 minutes), you’re left wondering…what’s going to happen?

The scene is set up to show how every day is pretty much the same since Carol and Maggie returned unharmed. It’s pretty mundane, compared to recent events. Then you have Rick seeing Morgan’s built a jail cell? How…odd. But I suppose, like he says, it’ll give them options next time.

Carol and Daryl have a little talk, and it’s like opposites. Carol is realising they don’t need to go and kill outright, and you can tell it’s all having a nasty toll on her soul. Daryl asks her what they did to her and Maggie. By ‘they’ I assume they mean the ones that kidnapped her. Carol points out that ‘they’ didn’t do anything to ‘them.’ It’s good to see Daryl has his bike back, at least. It feels like he’s gradually getting pieces of his life back in order.

Next big thing we have is Denise wanting to go on a supply run with Daryl and Rosita. It’s kind of amusing when they’re in the truck, and how unenthusiastic they all look. Then Denise tries to tell Daryl how to drive the truck…that made me laugh.

They find this shop Denise remembered seeing a while ago. It’s uneventful, besides Denise seeing a creepy walker and freaking out. When they leave to go back to the truck, Daryl actually takes the rail tracks back, unlike on the way there when he refused. Terminus memories, perhaps?

Another two going on some kind of scout is Eugene and Abraham. Their back and forth bickering is funny yet sad, because they’re like…brothers. I don’t want to see them fight like children. Eugene finds a warehouse where he decides they can make more bullets. But when Abraham spots a walker, Eugene calls ‘dibs’ and wants to kill it. He tries, but the walker has some metal stuff over its head. I’m rooting for Eugene, but then Abraham kills it instead and causes a row between them. I get why he did it, but Eugene wanted to prove himself, and there’s a certain amount of pride that goes into that. Abraham had been acting like an ass for a while, but suddenly he’s told his ‘services are no longer required’ and I’m like, ‘damn, bro, that was harsh!’

Then we’re back to Denise, Daryl and Rosita. Like I said earlier, when an episode is relatively quiet for most of the time, you know something’s going to go down. Like the calm before the storm. Denise goes wandering, and I can’t help but be like ‘no, don’t do it.” but she does it anyway. She fights a walker over a damn cooler! How stupid can you get. Then she throws up over her glasses, and there’s a funny moment when she realises this. Here’s the scene that really caught my attention: Daryl tells her she was stupid for doing that and could have gotten herself killed, but she rightly points out that she needed to do this, and she’s trained in stuff they’ll never understand (I’m paraphrasing here). Her lecture to them is inspired and heartfelt and I’m almost cheering her on, and then disaster struck…she gets an arrow shot through her eye/head. Honestly, I didn’t see that coming. Apparently in the comic book, it’s Abraham that gets the arrow. Someone had spoiled it for me that a girl gets it this time, but I was just starting to like Denise. This has me all sad.

There’s an arrival of men that Daryl had an encounter with in a previous episode/season. Dwight? He works for Negan, or something like that. He’d stolen Daryl’s crossbow, so that’s another thing that’s returned. They run off when Abraham comes to help them attack back, otherwise they’d have been really outnumbered. Eugene is shot, but he survives. I don’t think I could have managed seeing two characters killed off. It made me smile when Abraham and Eugene make up in the infirmary, but then I was like WTF when Abraham goes to Sasha. I like Sasha but I don’t like them as a couple. He should be with Rosita. Dammit!

The ending of this episode thoroughly confused me, however. Carol leaving? WHY? WHERE? HOW? I cannot believe she’d ditch them, but I have faith she’ll return, so long as she’s alive. She better live!